Woman sues ex-boyfriend and four sites that allegedly hosted her nude pictures.

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A Florida woman who said her ex-boyfriend uploaded compromising pictures of her to various websites has filed a lawsuit against numerous parties connected to her plight. It's the second well-publicized lawsuit fighting back against "revenge porn" sites.

Like the first lawsuit, it seems to be taking a broad, confused view of who's responsible. The lawsuit not only names the woman's ex-boyfriend, but also four websites she says hosted the pictures—and even their Web hosting companies.

Plaintiff Holly Jacobs says that her ex, Ryan Seay, "took, appropriated, or otherwise obtained pornographic images" of Jacobs while they were dating. After the relationship went sour, Seay allegedly "began publishing pornographic photographs and video of the plaintiff as well as plaintiff's name, occupation, details about her schedule, and other personal and private facts about the plaintiff on various websites."

Jacobs describes the defendant websites—sextingpics.com, anonib.com, pinkmeth.tv, and xhamster.com—as "revenge pornography" sites that "traffic in pornographic photographs of young women and children as well as private facts and details of the victims." But looking at the sites, one gets a rather different impression.

XHamster appears to be a generic website for user-submitted pornography. Its "about us" page states that "we created a perfect platform for users to share their own amateur content and for producers to advertise their professional works." We didn't see any sign that the site was geared toward revenge pornography. AnonIB appears to be a 4chan-style site where anyone can post images anonymously. Much of the content is pornographic but it doesn't seem to focus on "revenge porn." Sextingpics does appear to be a "revenge porn" site, and pinkmeth.tv appears to have gone offline.

Jacobs goes on to name the companies that provide hosting services to these four sites as defendants, but the plaintiffs may have trouble winning against Web hosts. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act gives hosting companies broad immunity for the content posted by their customers. The websites themselves may also enjoy immunity under Section 230 depending on how actively they curated the content submitted by users

"The legal question isn't close," legal scholar Eric Goldman told us in January. He was commenting on another revenge porn case where the plaintiff named GoDaddy, which provided hosting for a pornographic website, as a defendant. GoDaddy may eventually prevail on the Section 230 question, but according to Beaumont Enterprise, a Texas judge refused to dismiss GoDaddy from the lawsuit last month.

"After reading the authorities presented to the court and considering the arguments of counsel, it is my opinion that the Motion to Dismiss should be denied at this time," the judge wrote.

Jacobs accuses all of the defendants of invasion of privacy, public disclosure of private facts, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She seeks an injunction against continued distribution of the compromising images and possibly monetary damages.

The lawsuit is part of a broader campaign to shut down revenge porn sites. Jacobs is the founder of a group called End Revenge Porn. She and other activists are lobbying Florida lawmakers to pass legislation that would make it a felony to post nude photos or videos along with identifying information to "a social networking service or any other website."